Summary:
Memorial Day has become a three-day opportunity for vacation time and picnics. Its history and traditions would remind us that Memorial Day is a far more solemn day than it has become.

Details or Sample:
Ah, Memorial Day! The traditional kickoff to the summertime in the United States . . . a day with parades, solemn ceremony, picnics, and visits to the graves of family members. But have we lost the special meaning of this day amongst the parades and family time?

Origins of Memorial Day

Before Memorial Day there was the American Civil War, the great conflict that pitted North against South and brother against brother. Sometime before the war ended some southern women"s groups organized to honor the Confederate dead by decorating their graves. This yearly practice became known as Decoration Day.

Since then, many towns across America have claimed that they founded the traditions associated with Memorial Day, but the practice of decorating graves began in the 1860s somewhere, no one knows exactly where, in this war-ravaged nation.

On May 5, 1868, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, General John Logan, issued an official proclamation recognizing Decoration Day. About 20,000 Union and Confederate grave sites at Arlington National Cemetery were decorated with flowers that first official Decoration Day on May 30, 1868.

By 1890, the northern states observed the day. Eight former Confederate states chose other days to honor their war dead until World War I. War has a way of changing perspectives. Since both northern and southern born sons died in that war, the day became a time to remember the dead from any war.

Correctly or not, in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson designated Waterloo, New York, as the birthplace of Memorial Day. Congress changed the traditional May 30th observance to accommodate the National Holiday Act of 1971, an act that makes every federally recognized holiday, including Memorial Day, a three-day weekend. For most states, Memorial Day is the last Monday in the month of May.

Traditions of Memorial Day

Perhaps the one tune most associated with Memorial Day is "Taps". The four bugle notes that compose this haunting melody echo over the hallowed sites where war veterans are laid to rest. As with Memorial Day, "Taps" has its origins in the Civil War. In July 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac was withdrawing after failing to take Richmond, Virginia, in the Seven Days Battles. Both armies had suffered major losses. No doubt those days of conflict weighed heavily on the mind of Union General Daniel Butterfield when he and his company bugler reworked another bugle call into "Taps". It became the Lights Out call for the Army of the Potomac and for some Confederate units. Before July 1862 was over, "Taps" was used to honor a fallen Union artilleryman in lieu of three volleys of gunshot that might reveal the Union position, and has been used since for military funerals.

Not only does Memorial Day have its own tune, it also has a flower associated with its observance. In 1915, Canadian Colonel John McCrae wrote of the red poppies covering the graves of the fallen soldiers in the poem later known as "In Flanders Fields". Inspired by that poem, a woman called Moina Michael began to wear a red poppy on that day to remember the sacrifice. Selling poppies to her friends, she gave the proceeds to needy servicemen. Madam Guerin brought this idea back to France with her and made red poppies by hand to sell. The money she generated helped war orphans and widows. The VFW became the first veterans" group in 1922 to adopt the tradition of selling these Memorial flowers. Today, disabled veterans make the poppies you may purchase before Memorial Day.

Each grave at Arlington National Cemetery is decorated with a small flag the Thursday before Memorial Day. The Third United States Infantry has had this honor and the duty of guarding these markers since the late 1950s. The president or vice president of the United States makes a speech and lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark the day. Thousands of people attend this large ceremony each year.

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Written by: Sandra Lynn Petersen
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